A sentencing judge's failure to refer to the fact that an offender was on bail and parole at the time of offending may constitute a failure to take into account a highly relevant fact resulting in error. Where an offender enters a joint criminal enterprise knowing a co-offender is armed with an apparently working firearm, the offender's claimed ignorance that the weapon was loaded does not mitigate the objective seriousness of the offence; the absence of knowledge that a weapon was loaded does not reduce an offence to mid range where knowledge would have placed it well above. Complex sentencing exercises involving multiple offences with standard non-parole periods and multiple aggravating features warrant deliberation rather than ex tempore determination.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 2 later cases that cite this judgment.